Lower Manhattan’s Mysterious Warplane

A replica of a British warplane sits atop 77 Water Street in Lower Manhattan, delighting and puzzling the occupants of nearby buildings. See more photos.

For years, Shawn Hakimian has wondered why a World War I fighter plane sits on the roof of 77 Water Street.

“It’s not every day you see an airplane taking off from a New York City building,” says Hakimian, a developer whose 75 Wall Street condominiums have views onto the roof of the neighboring Water Street building and the biplane that is parked there, on a landing strip lined with runway lights. “It’s one of our buyers’ most commonly asked questions.”

When the William Kaufman Organization built the 26-story office tower in 1970, the owner wanted to adorn its roof with something more interesting than air-conditioning machinery.

The William Kaufman Organization

A photo of the newly installed plane replica, taken in 1969.

“When you’re in a building that’s higher, and you’re looking down, it’s pretty ugly,” says Robert Kaufman, the company’s president. “So we said: ‘what can we do?’ And we got the idea of putting an airplane on the roof.”

Though Kaufman delights in onlookers wondering if a plane did indeed fly in and land on 77 Water Street, the aircraft is actually just an artistic re-imagining of a 1916 British Sopwith Camel, designed by Rudolph de Harak and constructed by sculptor William Tarr. It was hoisted into place by crane in 1969 and hasn’t moved since.

The high-altitude plane is just one of many whimsical embellishments found on Kaufman-owned buildings throughout New York City. At 767 Third Avenue, an otherwise bland cement wall abutting the property is decorated with a three-story chess board, on which historic matches have been recreated. Explore the plaza at 77 Water Street, and you’ll find a full-size replica of a turn-of-the-century penny candy store, open for business. And neighboring buildings with a view of the setback at 127 John Street have a view on a cat chasing a canary, set in tile.

But why go to the trouble of installing a replica World War I fighter plane on the roof of a building where few can see it?

Though it might lack the necessary mechanics to get off the ground, it’s a safe assumption that 77 Water Street’s biplane has taken flight countless times over the past 40 years in the imaginations of Wall Street residents and office workers fortunate enough to count it in their windowscape – and that’s enough for Kaufman.

“You can’t just impose these buildings and ignore the people that have to look at them,” he said, adding later: “It’s very satisfying when you do something that people so appreciate.”

Nick Carr is a New York City-based film location scout. He blogs about the city’s architectural curiosities at Scouting New York.